Date:

December 29, 2022    (Episode # 1,041)

Rami Khouri on Arab Autocracies & U.S. Policy
     
In this episode of Arab Voices (#1,041), we will air a program from Alternative Radio, in which David Barsamian, the award-winning investigative journalist, interviews Rami Khouri, a senior fellow with the Middle East Initiative at the Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School, and the Founding Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, on Arab Autocracies & U.S. Policy. The interview was conducted in early December 2022, at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference, held in Denver, Colorado.
 
Topics covered in the interview: What influence, if any, the events in Iran may have on the Arab States, how has the Ukraine war impacted the Arab region, the disappearance of coverage of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Palestine, Israel, BDS, autocrats in the Middle East, U.S., Saudi Arabia, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, United Arab Emirates, political relationships, US Policy, military basis in the Arab region, colonial powers, Arab uprisings, the war on Yemen, regional powers, proxy wars, political prisoners in Egypt, the situation in Lebanon and the collapse of its economy, what's happening in Syria, climate change, environmental issues, the water problem in Jordan, prospects for hope in the Arab region, and more.
  
Autocracy: concentrated power in the hands of a few. The U.S. is linked to a network of Arab autocracies led by sultans, emirs, and military dictators who are called allies and partners. Politics and economics make for strange bedfellows. Perhaps none is stranger than the one with the feudal regime of Saudi Arabia. The Washington/Riyadh axis goes back to 1945 when FDR met King Saud on a U.S. destroyer in the Suez Canal. The deal was struck. The U.S. would protect the Saud monarchy and in return, American corporations would have access to Saudi oilfields. In the decades since ties between the two countries have remained close. Today, the U.S. has been supporting the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which has resulted in almost 400,000 dead and millions hungry.
 
Rami Khouri has reported on the Arab region for decades. He is a senior fellow with the Middle East Initiative at the Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School. He was the Founding Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut in 2006-14.He was Executive Editor of the Beirut Daily Star and before that Editor-in-Chief of The Jordan Times. His articles appear in major newspapers around the world.
     
Alternative Radio, established in 1986, is an award-winning weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and beyond. AR provides information, analyses and views that are frequently ignored or distorted in corporate media. With headquarters based in Boulder, Colorado and with only two full-time and two part-time paid staff, AR airs on over 200 radio stations.

Date:

December 22, 2022    (Episode # 1,040)

1st Segment: World Cup Hosted by Qatar, the Murder of Palestinian Political Prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid, and the Forced Expulsion of Palestinian-French Human Rights Lawyer Salah Hammouri
     
During this episode of Arab Voices, we will talk about the World Cup hosted for the first time in an Arab & Muslim country, Qatar, and its historic successes despite some outrage and hatred by some sports analysts, TV personalities, and politicians against hosting the World Cup in an Arab/Muslim country.
   
We will also talk about Nasser Abu Hmeid, a Palestinian Political Prisoner who died while in Israeli occupation custody because Israel prevented him from receiving proper medical aid, and will also talk about Apartheid Israel’s forcible expulsion of Palestinian-French Human Rights Lawyer Salah Hammouri from occupied Palestine.
       

2nd Segment: Al Jazeera takes the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh to the International Criminal Court (ICC)
     
Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent world-renowned Palestinian-American Journalist who worked for Al Jazeera TV Channel was assassinated by Apartheid Israel on May 11, 2022. Since her assassination, Shireen Abu Akleh’s family as well as Al Jazeera, have been calling for an independent investigation into her murder and also calling for justice and accountability. Several Human Rights groups, international media outlets, the United Nations, and as described by witnesses, concluded from their own findings that an Israeli soldier fired at and assassinated Shireen Abu Akleh.
 
On December 6, 2022, Al Jazeera Media Network submitted a formal request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. A press conference was held in the Hague after the filing with the International Criminal Court, and in this episode of Arab Voices, we will air some of the remarks delivered at that press conference, including the remarks of Cameron Doley, Al Jazeera's External Council, Rodney Dixon KC, Al Jazeera's Lawyer, Lina Abu Akleh, Shireen Abu Akleh’s niece, Walid Al-Omari, Al Jazeera's Bureau Chief in Jerusalem, Frane Maroević, Executive Director of the International Press Institute, and Antoine Bernard, Director of Advocacy and Strategic Litigation at Reporters Without Borders.

Date:

December 15, 2022    (Episode # 1,039)

Date:

December 8, 2022    (Episode # 1,038)

"Gaza: The Longest Siege in Modern History - 2007 to the Present" (Part 2 of 2)
     
The Center for Middle East Studies at Brown University in Rhode Island, held a panel discussion on October 3, 2022, titled "Gaza: The Longest Siege in Modern History - 2007 to the Present". The speakers were Aya Al-Ghazzawi, a Writer, and an English language teacher in the Palestinian Ministry of Education, Jehad Abusalim, a PhD candidate at the History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies Joint Program at New York University, Hadeel Assali, Postdoctoral Research Scholar and Lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, Dr. Swee Chai Ang, Orthopedic surgeon, and Author, and Dr. Fady Joudah, Physician, Poet, and Translator.
 
The event was co-sponsored by the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston and The Jerusalem Fund, and was hosted by the Mahmoud Darwish Visiting Professor in Palestinian Studies, Abdel Razzaq Takriti, who is also the first holder of the inaugural Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History and the Founding Director of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston.
 
During the last episode of Arab Voices, we aired the remarks of Professor Abdel Razzaq Takriti, Aya Al-Ghazzawi, and Jehad Abusalim, and in this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the remarks of Hadeel Assali, Dr. Swee Chai Ang, and Dr. Fady Joudah.

Date:

December 1, 2022    (Episode # 1,037)

1st Segment: “Lebanon: Turning Crisis Into Recovery" Q&A Session (part 2 of 2)
     
During last week’s episode of Arab Voices, we aired the remarks delivered at a panel titled “Lebanon: Turning Crisis Into Recovery”. That panel was part of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) 2022 Alex Odeh Memorial Conference and Gala held in October 2022 in California, where they explored the issues that impact the community, while honoring Alex Odeh and celebrating Arab American excellence and achievement. At that panel, Dr. Souhail Toubia moderated an examination of the multiple crises facing Lebanon, which included the various paths towards recovery. The panel explored the humanitarian crisis, Lebanese-American aid, the political and social upheaval, as well as economic and recovery options. Dr. Toubia was joined by Sarah M. A. Gualtieri, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, History, and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California, James E. Rauch, Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, and Hassan Essayli, all of whom provided invaluable insight into the unfolding situation in Lebanon.
 
During this episode of Arab Voices, we will air most of the questions and answers that followed the remarks we aired last week on Lebanon.
    

2nd Segment: "Gaza: The Longest Siege in Modern History - 2007 to the Present" (Part 1 of 2)
     
The Center for Middle East Studies at Brown University in Rhode Island, held a panel discussion on October 3, 2022, titled "Gaza: The Longest Siege in Modern History - 2007 to the Present". The speakers were Aya Al-Ghazzawi, a Writer, and an English language teacher in the Palestinian Ministry of Education, Jehad Abusalim, a PhD candidate at the History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies Joint Program at New York University, Hadeel Assali, Postdoctoral Research Scholar and Lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, Dr. Swee Chai Ang, Orthopedic surgeon, and Author, and Dr. Fady Joudah, Physician, Poet, and Translator.
 
The event was co-sponsored by the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston and The Jerusalem Fund, and was hosted by the Mahmoud Darwish Visiting Professor in Palestinian Studies, Abdel Razzaq Takriti, who is also the first holder of the inaugural Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History and the Founding Director of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston.
 
During this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the remarks of Professor Abdel Razzaq Takriti, Aya Al-Ghazzawi, and Jehad Abusalim, and we will air the remarks of Hadeel Assali, Dr. Swee Chai Ang, and Dr. Fady Joudah during the next episode of Arab Voices.

Date:

November 24, 2022    (Episode # 1,036)

"Lebanon: Turning Crisis Into Recovery"
     
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the largest Arab American grassroots civil rights organization in the United States committed to defending the rights of people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage, held its 2022 Alex Odeh Memorial Conference and Gala on October 7-8, 2022, in California, where they explored the issues that impact the community while honoring Alex Odeh and celebrating Arab American excellence and achievement.
  
There were great speakers and excellent topics discussed at that conference, and we plan to air some of them on this program. In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1,036), we will air the remarks delivered at the panel titled “Lebanon: Turning Crisis Into Recovery”.
  
At that panel, Dr. Souhail Toubia moderated an examination of the multiple crises facing Lebanon, which included the various paths towards recovery. The panel explored the humanitarian crisis, Lebanese-American aid, the political and social upheaval, as well as economic and recovery options. Dr. Toubia was joined by Sarah M. A. Gualtieri, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, History, and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California, James E. Rauch, Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, and Hassan Essayli, all of whom provided invaluable insight into the unfolding situation in Lebanon.
 
About the moderator and panelists:
 
Sarah Gualtieri is an award-winning historian, teacher, and author currently serving as a professor in the Departments of American Studies and Ethnicity, History, and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California. Her research bridges several areas of expertise, notably Middle East Migration Studies and Arab American Studies with a particular focus on questions of race, gender, and power. In 2009 Sarah published her first book, Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora, which traced how Arabs came to be officially classified as white by the U.S. government, and how different Arab groups interpreted, accepted, and contested this racial classification over the course of the 20th century. Her most recent book, published in 2020, titled Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California, traces the stories of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian migrants in Southern California, which has won the Arab American Book Award and the Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies.
 
James E. Rauch is Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2019, Oxford University Press published his textbook, The Economics of the Middle East. He has conducted extensive research in the Middle East and was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Financial Economics in the American University of Beirut.
 
Hassan Essayli was born in Yater, South Lebanon in 1952. At age 17, he came to California as an exchange student with the American Field Service program, and upon his return to Lebanon, completed his baccalaureate education. Hassan then immigrated to the United States in 1972 to attend California State University, Long Beach, where he received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master's degree in Political Science. Hassan became a member of the American-Arab University Graduates (AAUG) and the National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA), whose goals were to make Americans aware of Arab history and contributions to world civilization. With the Civil war raging in Lebanon, Hassan made it his mission to save young people from becoming casualties of the war by bringing them to study in the United States. He served as a National board member of ADC and won an ADC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. He is a member of several civil and human rights organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International. He volunteers his time as head of the Sadr Foundation USA, West Coast branch, which aims to raise money for an orphanage in South Lebanon. Hassan is the proud father of two young men, Jad and Kareem, both attorneys, who continue his legacy in Southern California.
 
Dr. Souhail Toubia is a Lebanese American physician and inventor. For the past ten years he has served on the National Board of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and has been an ADC member since 1985. Dr. Toubia lives in Orange County, California. He has served on the Orange County ADC board for twelve years and has been actively involved in humanitarian work for thirty years. Dr. Toubia graduated from the University of Brussels, Belgium and did his family practice residency at the University of California, Irvine. He has participated in volunteer work with the Flying Samaritans treating and bringing medical equipment and medications to farmers and villagers in remote areas in Mexico, particularly in Baja California. Currently, Dr. Toubia is a retired physician who, alongside his charitable work, continues to invent, design, and develop medical/dental equipment and implants.

Date:

November 17, 2022    (Episode # 1,035)

Q&A Session that followed Professor Rashid Khalidi's Lecture on the Balfour Declaration and the Impact it has had on the Palestinian People (Part 2 of 2)
     
During the previous episode of Arab Voices (#1,034), we aired a lecture on the Balfour Declaration and the impact it has had on the Palestinian people as this month, November 2022, marks the 105th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, issued by the British government, and laid the foundation for the establishment of a Jewish-Zionist state at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population, promising the land of Palestine to the Zionist movement. The lecture was delivered at the United Nations in November 2017 by Professor Rashid Khalidi, organized by the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. 
 
In this episode of Arab Voices (#1,035), we will air the Question & Answer Session that followed Professor Rashid Khalidi’s lecture on the Balfour Declaration and the impact it has had on the Palestinian people. Some of the questions included: could Palestinian leaders have targeted British colonialism instead of Zionism; why did Britain make such a promise in spite of its interest in the Arab world from the Suez to the Gulf; did the Zionist movement try to get support from the Ottoman Sultan, why is it that the British decided they would put the Jewish people in a particular area, and did they want to get rid of them; why the British have not apologized yet for the Balfour declaration; how would the international community deal with the issue of the absentee property law; how much did the Balfour declaration aim to delete the Palestinian identity; is a British apology for the Balfour Declaration beneficial for Palestinians; more information on the Aliens Act implemented by Balfour; the significance of identifying and calling the Palestinian people indigenous in Palestine; and more.
 
Professor Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Date:

November 10, 2022    (Episode # 1,034)

1st Segment: New Investigation Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh
     
On November 3, 2022, in commemoration of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, Al-Haq and Forensic Architecture announced the joint submission of forensic evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) based on their investigation of the Extrajudicial Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian-American Journalist who was shot and murdered in May 2022 by the Israeli Occupation Forces. Their investigation reveals new evidence of the circumstances of Shireen’s targeted killing, and their findings establish that the report on the incident published by the Israeli occupation forces is false and deliberately misleading. This investigation by Al-Haq and Forensic Architecture is the first to employ a precise digital reconstruction of the incident and has been able to conclusively support both new and existing claims about the targeting of Shireen Abu Akleh by drawing upon new evidence from a range of sources, including previously unseen footage, unpublished autopsy documents, and original testimonies.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air some of the information released in this new investigation report.
   

2nd Segment: Professor Rashid Khalidi's Lecture on the Balfour Declaration and the Impact it has had on the Palestinian People (Part 1 of 2)
     
This month, November 2022, marks the 105th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, issued by the British government, and laid the foundation for the establishment of a Jewish-Zionist state at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population, promising the land of Palestine to the Zionist movement.
  
In November 2017, the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People organized a lecture on the Balfour Declaration and the impact it has had on the Palestinian people. The lecture was delivered at the United Nations by Professor Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air Professor Rashid Khalidi’s lecture on the Balfour Declaration and the impact it has had on the Palestinian people.

Date:

November 3, 2022    (Episode # 1,033)

1st Segment: Interview with Mohammed Nabulsi on the Upcoming Houston Palestinian Festival (largest in North America)
     
We will speak with Mohammed Nabulsi, Palestinian-American attorney, community organizer, Director of Advocacy and Education for the Palestinian American Cultural Center, and Chair of the Houston Palestinian Festival.
 
We will speak with him about the upcoming 10th Annual Houston Palestinian Festival, the largest in North America, scheduled to be held on Saturday and Sunday, November 5 and 6, 2022, at the Crown Festival Park, 18355 Southwest Fwy, Sugar Land, TX 77479.
  

2nd Segment: "Joint Israel/Lobby Infiltration of Civil Rights Group Exposed" by Edward Ahmed Mitchell
     
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, co-hosted their annual Israel Lobby Conference on March 4, 2022. The 2022 Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home & Abroad conference brought together people from across the country and the world to critically assess the pro-Israel lobby and the U.S. government's unflinching support for Israel. There were several incredible speeches given by activists, artists, journalists, lawyers, politicians, and others.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices (#1,033), we will air the remarks of Edward Ahmed Mitchell on the topic “Joint Israel/Lobby Infiltration of Civil Rights Group Exposed”. Mitchell is the deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.

Date:

October 27, 2022    (Episode # 1,032)

Israeli House Demolitions by Jeff Halper
     
First, Arab Voices brief remarks on Apartheid Israel's ongoing attacks on Palestinians throughout occupied Palestine, its ongoing war crimes, genocide, extrajudicial executions, home demolitions, and its latest attack on Nablus city in the occupied West Bank.
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Jeff Halper, an Israeli-American activist, organizer, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Director of The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and co-founder of The One Democratic State Campaign, went on a speaking tour in the United States in October 2022, and he spoke in Houston, Texas on two different topics on October 22 and 23. He spoke on Actualizing a One-State Solution in one of these events, and on Israeli House Demolitions during the other.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1,032), we will air Jeff Halper's remarks on Israeli House Demolitions, and some of the questions and answers that followed his talk. Halper delivered that talk on October 23, 2022, at the Live Oak Friends Quaker Meeting House in Houston, Texas. Arab Voices is planning on airing Halper's remarks on Actualizing a One-State Solution in a different episode to be aired on a different week.

Date:

October 20, 2022    (Episode # 1,031)

“You Can Be the Last Leaf" - An Evening with Maya Abu Al-Hayyat
     
The Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston organized and hosted an evening with Palestinian Poet Maya Abu Al-Hayyat on October 19, 2022, for a poetry reading and a discussion about her book “You Can Be the Last Leaf”.

Translated from the Arabic and introduced by Dr. Fady Joudah, You Can Be the Last Leaf draws on two decades of work to present the transcendent and timely US debut of Palestinian poet Maya Abu Al-Hayyat. In You Can Be the Last Leaf, Abu Al-Hayyat has created a richly textured portrait of Palestinian interiority—at once wry and romantic, worried and tenacious, and always singing itself.
  
The evening, moderated by Hanan Awad, included readings from Maya's book. Maya read her poems in Arabic and Maha Abdelwahab read the translation to English.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices (#1,031), we will air the poems (in Arabic and English) read by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, and parts of the discussion that followed.
 
Maya Abu Al-Hayyat is the author of four collections of poetry, four novels, including No One Knows His Blood Type (2013), and numerous children’s stories, including The Blue Pool of Questions (2017). Her work has appeared in A Bird Is Not a Stone: An Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Poetry (2014). Maya is the editor of The Book of Ramallah: A City in Short Fiction (2021) and the director of Palestine Writing Workshop, an institution that seeks to encourage reading in Palestinian communities through creative writing projects and storytelling with children and teachers.
  
Hanan Awad is a Palestinian-American photo essayist, and guest host on Arab Voices Radio Talk Show, based in Houston. As a guest host for her special segment on Arab Voices Radio, Hanan has interviewed several important figures in the Palestinian community; arsists, activists, writers, and more. Hanan Awad is also the president and founder of the Olive Tree Project a 501© (3) that plants 1,000 olive trees in Palestine annually. Hanan’s photography has been exhibited around the world.
  
Maha Abdelwahab is a poet and a Literature and Creative Writing PhD candidate at the University of Houston specializing in Empire Studies. She received her MFA in Poetry from the University of Oregon where she was the recipient of the Promising Scholar Award. Her work can be found in The Adroit Journal, Rusted Radishes, The Recluse and elsewhere. Her research interests include Arabic-to-English translation, colonial Egypt, and Arab-American diasporic literature exploring abolition, gender, liberation, geography, imperialism and neo imperialism.
  
Fady Joudah has published five collections of poems, most recently, Tethered to Stars (2021), translated several collections of poetry from the Arabic, including You Can Be the Last Leaf (2022), and is the co-editor and co-founder of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. He was a winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition in 2007 and has received the Arab American Book Award, a PEN award, a Banipal/Times Literary Supplement prize from the UK, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is an Editor-at-Large for Milkweed Editions. He lives in Houston, with his wife and kids, where he practices internal medicine.

Date:

October 13, 2022    (Episode # 1,030)

"The Widespread Influence of Christian Zionism and Growing Backlash Inside American Churches" by Don Wagner
     
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1030), we will air the remarks delivered by the Reverend Dr. Don Wagner on the topic "The Widespread Influence of Christian Zionism and Growing Backlash Inside American Churches".
 
The Reverend delivered that talk at the annual 2022 Israel Lobby Conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 2022, co-hosted by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy.
  
Rev. Dr. Don Wagner recently retired as national program director of Friends of Sabeel-North America. Prior to that he was a professor of Middle East studies at North Park University, where he was also the director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. During the 1980s he was the national director of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rev. Wagner has served churches in New Jersey and Evanston, IL. He is the author or co-author of five books dealing with Palestinian human rights, Christian Zionism, a theological critique of Zionism and a history of Christianity in Palestine-Israel. These include Anxious for Armageddon: A Call to Partnership for Middle Eastern and Western Christians (1995) , Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land (2014) and Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000 (2003). The history and theology of Christian Zionism is a central topic of the book he is currently writing.

Date:

October 6, 2022    (Episode # 1,029)

Human Rights Groups: States Should Act to Protect Human Rights in Palestine, and Dismantle Israel’s Apartheid
     
In August 2021, Apartheid Israel labeled six Palestinian organizations as “terrorist" organizations”, and in 2022, Israeli forces stormed the offices of the Palestinian civil rights organizations, including the offices of Al-Haq, Addameer, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Union of Palestinian Women Committees, and the Health Workers Committees. The Israeli occupation forces ransacked the offices, stole documents and equipment from them, and welded their doors shut in an attempt to shut them down and prevent them from doing any work.
 
On September 28, 2022, and in response to the alarming escalation in the repression of Palestinian civil organizations, the International Federation for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch gathered as a delegation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to voice their support for Palestinian civil society and fight against the abusive and prolonged Israeli occupation, annexation, impunity, and apartheid.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1029), we will air the remarks delivered at that gathering in Ramallah, occupied Palestine, in support of the Palestinian civil society organizations, and to stand by them in the struggle against the Israeli occupation.
 
We will air the remarks of Souhayr Belhassen, President of the International Federation for Human Rights, Alexis Deswaef, Vice President for the International Federation for Human Rights, and a Human Rights Lawyer, Nathalie Godard, Amnesty International’s France Director of Campaigns, Sari Bashi, Human Rights Watch’s Program Director, and Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq's General Director. We will also air some of the questions and answers that followed their remarks.

Date:

September 29, 2022    (Episode # 1,028)

"What, If Any, Policies Have Changed Since the Trump Administration, and New Hope for Palestine’s Future" by Dr. Hanan Ashrawi
     
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1028), we will air the keynote address of Dr. Hanan Ashrawi on the topic "What, If Any, Policies Have Changed Since the Trump Administration, and New Hope for Palestine’s Future".
 
Dr. Ashrawi delivered that keynote address at the annual 2022 Israel Lobby Conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 2022, co-hosted by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy.
  
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi was the first woman to be elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 2009. She served as the official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace process from 1991-1993 and participated in the 1991-1992 Madrid peace conference as a member of the Palestinian Leadership Committee delegation. In 1993, Dr. Ashrawi founded the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights (PICCR) to investigate Israeli and Palestinian human rights violations. She chronicled her involvement in her book This Side of Peace: A Personal Account (1995). In 1996, Ashrawi was elected and subsequently reelected many times to the Palestinian Legislative Council. In 1996, she also accepted the post of Minister of Higher Education and Research. In 1998, Ashrawi founded and continues to serve in MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. In December 2020, she resigned from the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Date:

September 20, 2022    (Episode # 1,027)

"Contemporary Poetry: The Arab American Turn" with Poets Fady Joudah & Hayan Charara
     
The Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston held its Annual AAEF Dr. Burhan and Mrs. Misako Ajouz Professor of Arab Studies Distinguished Lecture in Literature on September 8, 2022, at the University of Houston under the title “Contemporary Poetry: The Arab American Turn”.
 
It was a discussion of Fady Joudah’s “Tethered to Stars: Poems” and Hayan Charara’s “These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit: Poems.” The discussion was moderated by Dr. Sally Connolly, Associate Professor of English at the University of Houston and Associate Dean of Student and Faculty Success for the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1027), we will air some of the talk delivered at that event, including the readings of both Fady Joudah and Hayan Charara, introduced by Dr. Emire Cihan Yüksel, Associate Professor at the University of Houston, who is serving as the 2022-23 Acting Director of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies. We will also air some of the questions and answers that followed their talk.
 
Fady Joudah is a Palestinian American physician, poet, and translator. Joudah’s debut collection of poetry, The Earth in the Attic (2008), won the 2007 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. Joudah followed his second book of poetry, Alight (2013) with Textu (2014), a collection of poems written on a cell phone wherein each piece is exactly 160 characters long. His fourth collection is Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance (2018). Joudah’s fifth and most recent collection, Tethered to Stars: Poems (2021) was selected as a Library Journal Best Book of Poetry of 2021.
 
Hayan Charara is a poet, children’s book author, essayist, and editor. He is a professor in the Honors College at the University of Houston, where he also teaches creative writing. His poetry books are These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit (2022), Something Sinister (2016), The Sadness of Others (2006), and The Alchemist’s Diary (2001). His children’s book, The Three Lucys (2016), received the New Voices Award Honor, and he edited Inclined to Speak (2008), an anthology of contemporary Arab American poetry. With Fady Joudah, he is also a series editor of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize.

Date:

September 13, 2022    (Episode # 1,026)

PACC Gala Remarks by Dr. Noura Erakat, Mazin Alkhadraa, and Mohammed Nabulsi
     
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1,026), we will air some of the remarks delivered at the 10th Annual Palestinian American Cultural Center’s Gala held in Houston, Texas on September 10, 2022, under the theme Reclaim, Return, Rebuild. We will air the remarks of the keynote speaker, Dr. Noura Erakat, author, human rights attorney, and associate professor at Rutgers University, as well as the remarks of Mazin Alkhadraa, President of the Palestinian American Cultural Center (PACC) speaking about the organization, its vision, activities, and future endeavors, including the efforts to create a physical Palestinian Center in Houston, and Mohammed Nabulsi, PACC Director of Advocacy & Education, speaking about the Mahmoud Darwish Scholarship and the upcoming Houston Palestinian Festival (Nov. 5-6, 2022).
  
The gala was very successful and well organized and had hundreds of attendees. During the gala, PACC honored Dr. Farouk Shami as a great Palestinian philanthropist and supporter of PACC over the years.
   
In addition to the remarkable speakers, the gala featured professional Dabke and Dance by Folkoholic Dance Theatre, and special music played on the Oud and Qanun by the talented brothers Muhammad and Hamzah Saadah. There was also artwork displayed by Hisam Nabulsi, a Palestinian-American artist and educator (through his artwork, Nabusli explores themes of movement, belonging, rhythm, authenticity, family, motherhood, and the struggle against oppression). There was also a photo gallery with incredible pictures and powerful Photo Essays by Hanan Awad, a Palestinian-American street photographer, whose photos have been exhibited around the world (Hanan's photos document the tragedy of the physical and cultural forced displacement of the Palestinians and narrate the story of Palestinian resilience & resistance against the colonialist occupation of Palestine). Fay Darzeh had a collection of traditional embroideries, decorations, antiques, and full traditional Palestinian clothing on display at the gala, and Mustafa Alatbash, a Palestinian Artist from Gaza, had handcrafted art on display that draws inspiration from the traditional architecture and heritage found in the historic cities and villages of his home country.
  
Gala Committee
   Iman Faris, Gala Co-Chair
   Bashira Idelbe, Gala Co-Chair
   Rima Dawood, Gala Vice Chair
   Muna Saqer
   Iman Sayyad
   Luna Madi
   Haneen Kadoomi
   Asmahan Al-Refaai
   Ola Zayed
           

Keynote Address by Dr. Noura Erakat
     
The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Noura Erakat, a human rights attorney and an Associate Professor at Rutgers University, New Brunswick in the Department of Africana Studies and the Program in Criminal Justice. Her research interests include human rights law, humanitarian law, national security law, refugee law, social justice, and critical race theory. Noura is an editorial committee member of the Journal for Palestine Studies and a co-Founding Editor of Jadaliyya, an electronic magazine on the Middle East that combines scholarly expertise and local knowledge. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and in the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019).
 
Dr. Erakat was introduced by Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti, the inaugural Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History and the Founding Director of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston, who was introduced by Vivian Khalaf, the Mistress of ceremony.
 
In her keynote address, Dr. Noura Erakat talks about advocacy work in the US, using US laws to influence US Policy, mobilizing communities, grassroots efforts, social movements, working with other communities, solidarity movements in the US, Black Palestinian Solidarity, the militarization of US Police in their practices, Police training in Israel, how in 2016 a coalition of Blacks, Palestinians, and Jewish organizers in Durham, North Carolina, waged the only successful campaign that abolished future Durham Police Officers’ training in Israel and bans police exchanges with Israel, and more.

Date:

September 6, 2022    (Episode # 1,025)

1st Segment: Lina Abu Akleh's Remarks (accepting an award honoring Shireen Abu Akleh)
     
On August 31, 2022, The National Press Club in Washington, D.C., held its annual Journalism Awards Dinner and presented Shireen Abu Akleh’s niece, Lina Abu Akleh with the 2022 National Press Club President’s Award in her honor. In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air Lina's remarks at that event.
  
On September 5, 2022, Apartheid Israel released a statement on its findings about the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American Journalist who was murdered by Israel in May 2022. In that statement, Israel said there is a ‘high possibility’ its army killed Shireen Abu Akleh, and also said it will not launch a criminal investigation into that killing. Shireen Abu Akleh’s family released a statement saying “As expected, Israel has refused to take responsibility for murdering Shireen. Our family is not surprised by this outcome since it’s obvious to anyone the Israeli war criminals cannot investigate their own crimes.” “We will continue to demand that the US government follow through with its stated commitments to accountability.”
  

2nd Segment: Recorded Interview with Diana Buttu on the Oslo Accord
     
29 years ago this month, the Oslo Accord was signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, an accord many thought was a good idea at that time, and some did not. In 2018, on the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accord, Arab Voices interviewed Diana Buttu, analyst, and former legal advisor to the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Diana Buttu also served as legal advisor to the PLO in its negotiations with Israel, and is a policy advisor to Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. Diana is a lawyer specializing in negotiations, international law, and international human rights law, based in Ramallah, Palestine.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will re-air that interview, in which we spoke with Diana about the failed Oslo Accord between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, why it failed, the ongoing Israeli colonization of Palestine, the U.S. stance towards Palestine and its funding cuts to UNRWA, the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem and other programs, the closure of the PLO office in Washington, and the move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We also talked about what options Palestinians should pursue, and more.

Date:

August 30, 2022    (Episode # 1,024)

"The Invention of Sectarianism in the Modern Middle East" by Ussama Makdisi, Ph.D.
 
The Center for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy held an event titled “The Invention of Sectarianism in the Modern Middle East” on September 20, 2017. The speaker was Ussama Makdisi, Professor of History and the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University. Today on Arab Voices, we will listen to that lecture.
   
Professor Makdisi is the author of "Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World”, Faith Misplaced: the Broken Promise of U.S.-Arab Relations, 1820-2001. His previous books include Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East, which was the winner of the 2008 Albert Hourani Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association, the 2009 John Hope Franklin Prize of the American Studies Association, and a co-winner of the 2009 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize given by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Makdisi is also the author of The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon and co-editor of Memory and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa. He has published widely on Ottoman and Arab history as well as on U.S.-Arab relations and U.S. missionary work in the Middle East. Among his major articles are “Anti-Americanism in the Arab World: An Interpretation of Brief History” which appeared in the Journal of American History and “Ottoman Orientalism” and “Reclaiming the Land of the Bible: Missionaries, Secularism, and Evangelical Modernity” both of which appeared in the American Historical Review. Professor Makdisi has also published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Comparative Studies in Society and History, and in the Middle East Report. Professor Makdisi is now working on a manuscript on the origins of sectarianism in the modern Middle East to be published by the University of California Press. In 2012-2013, Makdisi was an invited Resident Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin). In April 2009, the Carnegie Corporation named Makdisi a 2009 Carnegie Scholar as part of its effort to promote original scholarship regarding Muslim societies and communities, both in the United States and abroad.

Date:

August 23, 2022    (Episode # 1,023)

Aseel AlBajeh (in Ramallah) on the Closure of Palestinian Civil Society Organizations by Apartheid Israel
     
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1,023), we will interview Aseel AlBajeh, Legal Researcher and Advocacy Officer at Al-Haq organization in occupied Palestine. Al-Haq is one of six organizations Apartheid Israel had labeled as “terrorist" organization in 2021, and a few days ago, on August 18, 2022, Israeli occupation forces stormed the offices of the six Palestinian civil rights organizations, Al-Haq, Addameer, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defence for Children International-Palestine, Union of Agricultural Workers Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC). The IOF also raided the offices of the Health Workers Committees. Israeli occupation forces ransacked the offices, stole documents and equipment from them, and welded their doors shut in an attempt to shut them down and prevent them from doing any work.
 
We will speak with Aseel about the Israeli designation of the six Palestinian groups as "terrorist" groups, the Israeli closure of their offices in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli threats to arrest and imprison the organizations' staff, the reaction to the Israeli actions from various organizations and governments, actions that must be taken urgently, and more.
 
We will also listen to statements from Shawan Jabarin, General Director of Al-Haq, Sahar Francis, General Director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Farhan Haq, UN Spokesperson, and US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
 
#StandWithThe6
www.PalCivilSociety.com

Date:

August 16, 2022    (Episode # 1,022)

Rallies in Support of Palestine and against Israeli War Crimes
     
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1,022), we will continue to talk about the latest Israeli war crime and its killing spree against Palestinians, including children.
 
People throughout the world were outraged at the latest Israeli war crime and its ongoing murder of Palestinians including many children, especially with no accountability or anyone to suppress and prevent its criminal behavior.
 
We will air some of the remarks delivered at rallies held in different cities in the United States, including Houston, Chicago, and New York, in support of Palestine and against the Israeli war crimes. We will listen to Danya Murad with Palestinian Youth Movement, Mohammed Nabulsi with the Palestinian Youth Movement and the Palestinian American Cultural Center, Tiffany with Malaya Movement Texas, Palestinian Youth Movement Chicago, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss with Neturei Karta International, Nazek Sankari with the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Salaam Khater with Students for Justice in Palestine Chicago, Tarek Khalil with the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP-Chicago), and Kobi Guillory with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

Date:

August 9, 2022    (Episode # 1,021)

The latest Israeli Attack on the Gaza Strip
     
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1,021), our topic will be the latest Israeli attack on the besieged Gaza Strip, and the occupied West Bank.
 
We will air portions of an interview Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! conducted on August 8, 2022, with Issam Adwan, Gaza-based Journalist, Activist, and Researcher, the remarks delivered at the United Nations Security Council on August 8, 2022, by Dr. Riyad Mansour, Ambassador and Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, and the remarks of Professor Rashid Khalidi delivered at the United Nations Security Council last year on the steps necessary to implement United Nations resolutions and provide peace and security for all in Palestine.

Date:

August 2, 2022    (Episode # 1,020)

Shireen Abu Akleh’s Family & Congressional Representatives calling for Independent Investigation, Justice, and Accountability
     
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the remarks of several members of Shireen Abu Akleh’s family, as well as the remarks of several congressional representatives and senators, delivered at a press conference held in Washington, D.C. on July 28, 2022. Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent Palestinian-American Journalist who worked for Al Jazeera TV Channel, was assassinated by Apartheid Israel on May 11, 2022.

Shireen Abu Akleh’s family has been calling for an independent investigation, justice, and accountability into Shireen’s assassination.

The remarks we will air in this episode are from Diana Buttu, Palestinian analyst, former legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Policy Advisor to Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, who was with Shireen Abu Akleh’s family in Washington D.C., Victor Abu Akleh, Shireen’s nephew, Tony Abu Akleh, Shireen’s brother, Lina Abu Akleh, Shireen’s niece, Congressman Andre Carson (Indiana) who is introducing legislation requiring an investigation into the assassination of Shireen Abu Akeleh, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), Congresswoman Betty McCollum (Minnesota), Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts), Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Congresswoman Marie Newman (Illinois), Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), and Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, Advocacy and Communications Director for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). We will also listen to statements read at the press conference from Congressman Cori Bush (Missouri), Senator Chris Van Hollen (Maryland), and Senator Jeffrey Merkley (Oregon).

Date:

July 26, 2022    (Episode # 1,019)

The Belmarsh Tribunal: The War On Terror is Put on Trial
     
In this episode of Arab Voices (# 1,019), we will air some of the remarks delivered at the “Belmarsh Tribunal: The War On Terror is Put on Trial”.
  
Just after the bombshell revelations about the CIA plot to kidnap and assassinate WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange while he sought political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Progressive International organized the first physical Belmarsh Tribunal in London, UK. The Tribunal was held in October 2021 to put the U.S. on trial for its war crimes, and to demand justice for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faces 175 years in prison if extradited to the U.S. and convicted of violations of the Espionage Act.
 
The tribunal included many remarks from over 20 distinguished speakers, and in this episode of Arab Voices, we will air what some of the speakers had to say including remarks of Tariq Ali, Historian and original member of The Russell-Sartre Tribunal, Selay Ghaffar, Spokesperson for the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan, Jeremy Corbyn, Member of UK Parliament and Founder of the Peace and Justice Project, Eyal Weizman, Director of Forensic Architecture and Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, Özlem Demirel, Member of European Parliament, Daniel Ellsberg, Whistleblower, Pentagon Papers, Stella Moris, Partner of Julian Assange and member of his defense team, Ben Wizner, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lead attorney of Edward Snowden, and Edward Snowden, Whistleblower.
 
They spoke about many issues, including Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, the CIA plot to kidnap and assassinate Assange, wars and war crimes, the "war on terror", the war on Iraq, the war on Afghanistan, drone strikes, and more.
 
www.DontExtraditeAssange.com

Date:

July 19, 2022    (Episode # 1,018)

1st Segment: President Biden's visit to Occupied Palestine and Saudi Arabia
     
Arab Voices commentary on the recent visit by President Biden to the Middle East, his unconditional love and support for Apartheid Israel regardless of its war crimes and daily atrocities against the Palestinian people and its murder of civilians including Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, his love for Zionism, and a history of Biden's remarks over the years about Israel and Zionism, and the one thing that might be good about his recent visit!
  

2nd Segment: Ruba Sawaya on the Upcoming Houston Palestine Film Festival
     
Interview with Ruba Sawaya, President of the Houston Palestine Film Festival.
 
We will talk about the festival, its importance, and the lineup of films at this year's Houston Palestine Film Festival.
 
The Houston Palestine Film Festival will be held July 22 & 23 at Midtown Arts & Theatre Center Houston (MATCH), located on 3400 Main St, Houston, TX 77002.
     

3rd Segment: "Are U.S. news organizations getting better or worse in their Middle East reporting?" by Sut Jhally
     
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, co-hosted their annual Israel Lobby Conference on March 4, 2022. The 2022 Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home & Abroad conference brought together people from across the country and the world to critically assess the pro-Israel lobby and the U.S. government's unflinching support for Israel. There were several incredible speeches given by activists, artists, journalists, lawyers, politicians, and others.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices (#1,018), we will air the remarks of professor Sut Jhally on the topic "Are U.S. news organizations getting better or worse in their Middle East reporting?"
    
Sut Jhally is a professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the founder and executive director of the Media Education Foundation. He has won the Distinguished Teacher Award at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where the student newspaper has also voted him "Best Professor." Jhally is the producer of over 40 documentaries on media literacy topics in cultural studies, advertising, media and consumption.
 
Also the author of six books and numerous scholarly and popular articles, Jhally teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses which focus on media, public relations and propaganda, as well as gender, sex and representation. His books include Social Communication in Advertising: Persons, Products and Images of Well-Being (1988) with co-authors Stephen Kline and William Weiss, and The Codes of Advertising: Fetishism and the Political Economy of Meaning in the Consumer Society (1987).
 
Jhally’s documentary “The Occupation of the American Mind” focuses on pro-Israel public relations efforts within the U.S. Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. media culture, the film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel's favor.

Date:

July 12, 2022    (Episode # 1,017)

1st Segment: Elena Korbut on "Building Bridges to Counter Islamophobia" series
     
Interview with Elena Korbut, Executive Director of Partnership for the Advancement and Immersion of Refugees (PAIR) about "Building Bridges to Counter Islamophobia" series, which will include Battery Dance’s signature Dancing to Connect program for youth and spoken word and dance performances. The Dancing to Connect initiative engages participants in creativity and team building, using the art form of dance as a tool for building social cohesion and resolving conflict throughout the world. Up to 100 youth, ages 14-19, will be invited to participate in the summer dance workshop. PAIR program students, refugees resettled in Houston from countries around the world, will make up 50% of the participants. The remaining participants will be drawn from a cross-section of the broader Houston community. 

SPOKEN WORD AND DANCE
Ali Al-Kaabi and Ahmed Abdul-Majeed, who arrived in the U.S. from Iraq as refugees, share their stories through spoken word and dance respectively. The program aims to create a space that fosters dialogue, understanding, mutual respect and cultural exchange. Q and A will follow the performance.
   July 12 & July 14
   Stages Showtime 6:30PM
   Stages, 800 Rosine Street, Houston, TX 77019
   Register for this free event here.
  
DANCING TO CONNECT: FINAL PERFORMANCE
   Saturday July 16, 2022
   Showtime: 7PM - 8:30PM
   Zilkha Hall at Hobby Center for Performing Arts, 800 Bagby St, Houston, TX
   Reserve tickets (free) at https://my.thehobbycenter.org/5572.
  

2nd Segment: Reverend Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel on the historic Presbyterian Church (USA) vote labeling Israel an Apartheid State
     
Interview with Reverend Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel about the historic vote by the Presbyterian Church (USA) on July 8, 2022, declaring Israel an Apartheid state, and much more.
  
The Reverend Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel is a Presbyterian Minister from Atlanta, Georgia, and currently serves as a member of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation Advisory Board and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace. He has served the Presbyterian Church in numerous executive capacities including Moderator of its 214th General Assembly, General Assembly Commissioner, board member of the National Middle Eastern Ministries Committee, and member of the Outreach, Christian Education, and Peacemaking Committees of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta. The revered Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel has a Doctor of Ministry from the McCormick Theological Seminary. He speaks all over the USA about his journey as a Palestinian Arab Christian from Galilee. He also received numerous awards and recognitions for his work over the years.

Date:

July 5, 2022    (Episode # 1,016)

“The nature of democracy and human rights in Israel” by Gideon Levy
     
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, co-hosted their annual Israel Lobby Conference on March 4, 2022. The 2022 Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home & Abroad conference brought together people from across the country and the world to critically assess the pro-Israel lobby and the U.S. government's unflinching support for Israel. There were several incredible speeches given by activists, artists, journalists, lawyers, politicians, and others.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices (#1,016), we will air the keynote remarks delivered by Gideon Levy on the topic “The nature of democracy and human rights in Israel”. In his keynote speech he discusses the nature of democracy in Israel, questions about human rights, the occupation and apartheid, his views on the trajectory of Israeli and U.S. news media and how both could improve their reporting, the war on Ukraine and the way Israel had dealt with it, and more.
   
Gideon Levy is a columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, which he joined in 1982. He spent four years as the newspaper’s deputy editor and is currently a member of its editorial board. He is widely considered the “dean” of Israeli journalism—as well as “the most hated man in Israel.” As Levy has written, “Treating the Palestinians as victims and the crimes perpetrated against them as crimes is considered treasonous.” Levy writes the weekly Twilight Zone feature, which covers the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza over the last 30 years, as well as political editorials for the newspaper. His columns about politics, money, how Israel's military occupation is changing Israeli society and about U.S.-Israel relations are widely read and discussed around the world. Levy was the recipient, with Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb, of the 2016 Olof Palme Prize for their “fight against occupation and violence.” He has also received the Peace Through Media Award, at the 2012 International Media Awards; the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists’ Union Prize in 1997; and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996. His book, The Punishment of Gaza, was published in 2010.

Date:

June 28, 2022    (Episode # 1,015)

1st Segment: Protests against Human Rights Violations towards Muslims & others by the Indian Government
     
In this episode of Arab Voices, our topic will be the recent human rights and religious freedom violations against Christians, Muslims, and Dalits by the Indian government, as well as the insults by a member of the ruling BJP party toward the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Nearly 200 million Muslims in India are facing persecution, illegal arrests, and unlawful demolition of Muslim houses. In some areas in India, a ban was issued on Muslim women wearing the hijab in schools and colleges. Many are calling what is happening in India a genocide against Muslims.
 
Several protests were held in different cities in the United States in response to the increasing amount of violent and deadly attacks on Muslims, false imprisonment of Muslims, and the destruction of Muslim homes in India under the Modi/BJP regime.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air some of the remarks delivered at the recent protests held in Houston and Dallas. We will listen to the remarks of Ammar Abdullah, a volunteer with the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and the Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH), Mohammed ElFarooqui, Imam of ISGH Baytown Masjid, Shakeib Mashood, President of the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) Houston Chapter, William White, Director of Operations for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Houston), and Dr. Omar Suleiman, American Muslim scholar, Imam, civil rights leader, writer, and public speaker.
 

2nd Segment: Ajit Sahi on Hindutva
     
We will air a powerful speech on Hindutva delivered at the ICNA-MAS Convention held in Baltimore, Maryland on May 28, 2022, by Ajit Sahi.
 
Ajit Sahi is a journalist and activist, and he is the Advocacy Director at the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC).

Date:

June 21, 2022    (Episode # 1,014)

The Urgency of the Julian Assange Case and the Crisis of Press Freedom
     
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air a program from CodePink Radio titled “The urgency of the Julian Assange case and the crisis of press freedom”. That program was originally published on May 4, 2022, to mark World Press Freedom Day, and it includes a conversation with journalist Julian Assange's wife Stella and his brother Gabriel who explain the urgency of his case and why it's critical to the future of press freedom.
 
On June 17, 2022, the British government approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face espionage charges. Assange’s lawyers are expected to challenge that order in the British courts within 14 days. Julian Assange is charged by the United States government with the publication of classified documents and exposing war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Iraq. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if convicted of violations of the Espionage Act. Back in 2010, WikiLeaks released government materials related to American military operations in the Middle East, including a video showing American pilots in Iraq making jokes as they opened fire on a group of non-combatants that included civilians and journalists, as well as on Iraqis who came to their aid, killing numerous civilians and seriously wounding two children.

Several organizations have renewed their call to the Biden administration to drop the charges against Julian Assange, and are calling them an attack on journalism and free speech.

Date:

June 14, 2022    (Episode # 1,013)

Conversation with Palestinian Freedom Fighter & Resistance Icon Leila Khaled
     
In this episode, Arab Voices guest host Hanan Awad interviews Palestinian freedom fighter and resistance icon Leila Khaled about her journey as a freedom fighter for Palestine. Khaled is a member of the Palestinian National Council and a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Leila Khaled became well-known worldwide for the hijacking of two planes in 1969 and 1970.
     
Born in 1944 in the old city of Haifa, one of the most historical ports in all of Palestine, Leila Khaled spent the first four years of her life with her family until their ultimate displacement during the Nakba (Catastrophe) in 1948. Even after all these years, Leila still recalls her experience in her homeland and the brutality of her family’s expulsion as a continuous experience of trauma. Leila has since become a revolutionary icon for Palestinians; most notably through the famous picture of her – as a young woman – donning the traditional Palestinian kuffiyeh around her head. This picture alone has become its own symbol of resistance, struggle, and - most importantly – the Palestinian concept of sumud (steadfastness). Images of Leila Khaled can be found around the entire world, wherever signs of injustice are present. Specifically, the segregation wall around the West Bank as well as the military checkpoints, refugee camps, cafés, student dorms, and much more.

Date:

June 7, 2022    (Episode # 1,012)

Journalism’s Fallen Hero: Commemorating Shireen Abu Akleh
     
A special event was held in Houston, Texas on June 5, 2022, at the Arab American Cultural & Community Center titled “Journalism’s Fallen Hero: Commemorating Shireen Abu Akleh”. Shireen was a world-renowned Palestinian-American journalist who was assassinated by the Israeli Occupation Forces on May 11, 2022. The event was co-sponsored by The Arab American Cultural & Community Center, the Palestinian American Cultural Center, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Houston.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the remarks delivered at that event and the poems recited about Shireen Abu Akleh. We will air the remarks of Jill Yaziji, President of the Arab American Cultural & Community Center, Abbas Yacoubi, Palestinian-American activist, and board member, past president, and one of the co-founders of the Palestinian American Cultural Center, Aliya Khawaja with Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Houston, DeeDee Baba, Palestinian American Attorney, Mary Ramos, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Women’s Commissioner, and the Reverend Ronnie Lister, co-founder of the Enlightenment Gathering. We will also air two special poems (in Arabic) about Shireen Abu Akleh authored and recited by Hanan Khamis and Dr. Samir Tuma.

Date:

May 31, 2022    (Episode # 1,011)

1st Segment: Houston Muslim Study Key Findings
     
The recently conducted Houston Muslim Study was an in-depth and fascinating look into the Houston Muslim community: the positive impact, contributions, and challenges facing Muslims in Houston, the 4th largest city in the United States. The Wasat Institute commissioned the survey of Houston Muslims with New America, a think tank based out of Washington D.C., with the partnership of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, Clear Lake Islamic Center, and the Islamic Dawah Center.
 
During this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the key findings of the survey presented by Dr. Robert McKenzie, the senior researcher for this project. He revealed the results at an event organized by Wasat Institute in Houston on May 21, 2022.
 
Dr. McKenzie is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a non-resident fellow at New America. He is a domestic and foreign policy analyst, with fifteen years of applied research and work experience for the U.S. government, private sector, and academia.
 
Arab Voices had interviewed Dr. Robert McKenzie in January 2019 to discuss at that time the results of another study he worked on entitled “Houstonians Views on Muslim Americans”. That local study was part of a larger national study that broke down the “whys” at the heart of misunderstandings about Muslims in America. You can listen to that interview on our website, ArabVoices.net.
             

2nd Segment: International Conference on Jerusalem - The Spark Towards Liberation
     
Several Palestinian organizations, including Adalah, Al-Haq, the Community Action Center/Al-Quds University, and the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, held a conference entitled “International Conference on Jerusalem - The Spark Towards Liberation“. It was held on May 24, 2022, at Al-Quds University in occupied Jerusalem. Several sessions were held at that conference, aiming to build on the momentum sparked by the Unity Uprising in Jerusalem last year, and to further expand on the discourse of settler colonialism and apartheid that the Uprising reinforced internationally.
 
There were many speakers at the conference, and during this episode of Arab Voices, we will air some of the remarks delivered at the “Legalities of the Systematic Geo-demographic Domination in Jerusalem” session, including the remarks of Dr. Mounir Nusseibeh, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, at Al Quds University who spoke on "Silent Displacement", and the remarks of Dr. Ahmad Amara, Legal Researcher, and Lecturer, at New York University, who spoke on “An Ideology of Dispossession: Settling in the Hearts”.

Date:

May 24, 2022    (Episode # 1,010)

On the Assassination of Shireen Abu Aqleh: AlJazeera, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Reverend Ronnie Lister, Mosab Nasser, Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti, & Letter by 57 Members of Congresses
     
In the last episode of Arab Voices, we talked about the Israeli assassination of Shireen Abu Aqleh, a prominent world-renowned Palestinian-American journalist. Shireen was shot in the head and killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the occupied Jenin Refugee Camp in occupied Palestine on May 11, 2022.
 
During this episode of Arab Voices, we will continue to talk about this heinous crime. We will share with you remarks and comments from AlJazeera (where Shireen worked for over 20 years) by airing a program called “Start Here” titled “Shireen Abu Akleh – What happened?”. In that segment, Al Jazeera Start Here explains one week after the Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, was shot dead, what do we know about what happened? And why did her work at Al Jazeera mean so much to so many?.
 
We will also air the remarks of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the assassination of Shireen Abu Aqleh, a Moment of Silence for Shireen Abu Aqleh on the House floor by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, and some of the remarks delivered on May 17, 2022, at the Vigil held at Houston City Hall in Texas, to Mourn and Celebrate Shireen Abu Aqleh. We will air the remarks of Reverend Ronnie Lister, Imam and activist Mosab Nasser, and Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti, Associate Professor & Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History, and Founding Director of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston.
 
In addition, we will talk about the letter signed by 57 members of the U.S. Congress to Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State, and Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) asking for an official investigation by the U.S. Department of State and the F.B.I. into the killing of Palestinian-American Journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh.

Date:

May 17, 2022    (Episode # 1,009)

1st Segment: The Assassination of Shireen Abu Aqleh by Apartheid Israel
     
Shireen Abu Aqleh, a prominent world-renowned Palestinian-American journalist who was working for Al Jazeera TV was assassinated by the Israeli occupation forces in the occupied Jenin Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank in occupied Palestine on May 11, 2022. Shireen Abu Aqleh was 51 years old and was respected worldwide for her professionalism and coverage of the occupied Palestinian areas for the past 25 years. Shireen was wearing a bulletproof vest marked with the word PRESS in English and also wearing a bulletproof helmet, but the Israeli occupation snipers targeted her and shot her in the head killing her instantly. Al Jazeera producer Ali Al-Samudi who was with Shireen Abu Aqleh was shot in the back by the Israeli occupation forces. He is recovering now from his wounds.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will be talking about the assassination of Shireen Abu Aqleh, and the world's reaction to her murder. We will also listen to remarks on that topic by George Galloway, British politician, broadcaster, and writer, and Irish Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett. In addition, we will air portions of the briefing held by Ned Price, US State Department spokesperson, and the tough questions he faced from Said Arikat with AlQuds Newspaper and Matt Lee with the Associated Press.
          

2nd Segment: The 74th Anniversary of the Palestinian NAKBA
     
May 15, 2022, marked the 74th anniversary of the Palestinian NAKBA (Arabic word for Catastrophe), that's when Israel declared its independence on 78% of historic Palestine after wiping out more than 530 Palestinian villages and towns, killing thousands of Palestinians and forcing more than 850,000 Palestinians out of their homes. The Palestinians started referring to that as Al-Nakba, which actually started before 1948 and it continues to this day!

In this episode of Arab Voices, we will talk about the ongoing Palestinian NAKBA, air a special documentary on Al-NAKBA from the American Muslims for Palestine Chicago Chapter, listen to a report from Janna Jihad, the youngest Palestinian journalist, in occupied Ramallah, listen to “What's the Story?: Rami Younis on the Nakba in Lyd” by Mondoweiss, and listen to the Palestinian Reverend Dr. Munther Isaac with Bethlehem Bible College, reading excerpts on the 74th anniversary of Al-Nakba from "The Other Side of the Wall. A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope”.
 
Note: A few years ago, Pacifica Radio Network, produced a special documentary about Al-Nakba, to which Arab Voices contributed, and it aired on all Pacifica radio stations and their affiliates across the U.S. It was a collaboration between Arab Voices and several radio stations. This special documentary featured know experts, Palestinian politicians, elder survivors of the Nakba and their children and grand children, former detainees, reporters, and activists. You can listen to that hour here.
 
NEW: On May 16, 2022, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib introduced a historic resolution recognizing the Palestinian Nakba. The resolution was cosponsored by representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Betty McCollum, Marie Newman, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman.

Date:

May 10, 2022    (Episode # 1,008)

Conversation with Sanaa Seif and Sharif Abdel Kouddous about the New Book "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated" by Alaa Abd El-Fattah
     
The Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston and the Arab American Cultural & Community Center held a special Book Launch event on May 4, 2022, of "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated: Selected Writings" by Alaa Abd El-Fattah, hosting Sanaa Seif (Alaa's sister) and Sharif Abdel Ko​uddous.
 
Alaa Abd el-Fattah is arguably the most high-profile political prisoner in Egypt, if not the Arab world, rising to international prominence during the revolution of 2011. A fiercely independent thinker who fuses politics and technology in powerful prose, an activist whose ideas represent a global generation which has only known struggle against a failing system, a public intellectual with the rare courage to offer personal, painful honesty, Alaa’s written voice came to symbolize much of what was fresh, inspiring and revolutionary about the uprisings that have defined the last decade. Collected here for the first time in English are a selection of his essays, social media posts and interviews from 2011 until the present. He has spent the majority of those years in prison, where many of these pieces were written. Together, they present not only a unique account from the frontline of a decade of global upheaval, but a catalogue of ideas about other futures those upheavals could yet reveal. From theories on technology and history to profound reflections on the meaning of prison, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated is a book about the importance of ideas, whatever their cost.
 
Sanaa Seif is an Egyptian filmmaker, producer, and political activist. She has been imprisoned three times under the Sisi regime for her activism. Most recently from the summer of 2020 until December 2021, when she was abducted by security forces after trying to get a letter in to her brother in prison. Hundreds of cultural figures and dozens of institutions campaigned for her release. She was released in December and will travel to the US to promote her imprisoned brother, Alaa Abd el-Fattah's, newly published book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated.

Sharif Abdel Ko​uddous is an independent journalist based in Cairo. For eight years he worked as a producer and correspondent for the TV/radio news hour Democracy Now! In 2011, he returned to Egypt to cover the revolution. Since then, he has reported for a number of print and broadcast outlets from across the region, including Egypt, Libya, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere. He received an Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media for his coverage of the Egyptian revolution and an Emmy award for his coverage of the Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban. He is currently an editor and reporter at Mada Masr, Egypt's leading independent media outlet.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the conversation between Sanaa Seif (Alaa's sister) and Sharif Abdel Ko​uddous, and some of the questions and answers that followed.
 
You Have Not Yet Been Defeated: Book Events in the USA

Date:

May 3, 2022    (Episode # 1,007)

1st Segment: Arab-American Heritage Month & AAEF Center for Arab Studies at UH - Interview with Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti
     
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air a program from Sprouts Radio, produced by Arab Voices. Sprouts is a radio program that features community stories from the grassroots and airs nationally on over 100 radio stations in the USA and Europe. In this episode of Sprouts, we talk about the Arab-American Heritage Month and the contributions of Arab-Americans to the American Society. We also highlight (as a recent major Arab-American contribution to the American Society & Globally) the newly created Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston in an interview with Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti, Associate Professor & Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History, and Founding Director of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston.
    

2nd Segment: Remarks at two Major Protests held in Houston Denouncing the Ongoing Israeli Atrocities and Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
     
We will air some of the remarks delivered at two recent protests held in Houston, Texas, and attended by hundreds to condemn the ongoing Israeli crimes, atrocities, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
 
The first protest was held on April 23, 2022, in the Galleria area, at one of the busiest intersections in the city, and the second one was held on April 29, 2022, in front of the Israeli Consulate in Houston on the International Day of Al-Quds, which is held every year on the last Friday of Ramadan.

Date:

April 26, 2022    (Episode # 1,006)

Date:

April 19, 2022    (Episode # 1,005)

Taher Herzallah
 
Taher Herzallah is the Associate Director of Outreach & Community Organizing for the American Muslims for Palestine organization. He is one of the 'Irvine 11,' a group of students who were arrested and prosecuted for expressing their constitutionally protected rights of free speech and political dissent when they walked out of a speech given by the Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine in 2010. He was also one of six people arrested for protesting the appointment of David Friedman as US ambassador to Israel at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in February 2017. He has had articles published in various media outlets including the Orange County Register and Al Jazeera English, and has been featured on several media and radio interviews throughout the US and internationally. Taher Herzallah studied Political Science and International Affairs at UC Riverside.
    

We will speak with Taher about the ongoing Israeli attacks and ethnic cleansing of Palestine, what’s happening in occupied Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, what’s happening in the occupied West Bank, home demolitions, Israeli colonies, the ongoing blockade on the Gaza Strip, the hypocrisy and double standard of western governments and media outlets coverage of the crisis in Ukraine vs. the crisis in occupied Palestine, the US foreign policy, what people can do in the US, and more.

Date:

April 12, 2022    (Episode # 1,004)

1st Segment: Houston Iftar 2022 Remarks
     
On April 10, 2022, nearly 2,000 people attended the Annual Houston Iftar (Ramadan Dinner) with the Mayor of Houston. It was one of the largest Iftar dinners in North America. In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air a few of the remarks delivered at that event, including the remarks of the keynote speaker, Sylvester Turner, Mayor of the City of Houston, Nasruddin Rupani, honorary chair of Houston Iftar 2022, and chairman of Ibn Sina Foundation, MJ Khan, a member of the Houston Iftar organizing committee, former President of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, and former Houston City Council member (the first Muslim-American council member), Ayman Kabire, President of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, and Congressman Al Green.
   

2nd Segment: H. RES. 1090: “Recognizing Islam as one of the great religions of the world"
     
Congressman Al Green introduced House Resolution 1090 in August 2020, recognizing Islam as one of the great religions of the world. In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the remarks delivered by Congressman Al Green at the U.S. House of Representatives, presenting that resolution. We will also air the remarks of Congressman André Carson speaking about Islam and Muslims at the U.S. House of Representatives in support of Congressman Al Green’s resolution.

Date:

April 5, 2022    (Episode # 1,003)

Protecting Palestinian Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society Organizations: Israel’s Baseless Designation of the 6
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the remarks delivered at a special panel discussion held on March 15, 2022, in parallel to the 49th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council titled: ‘Protecting Palestinian Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society Organizations: Israel’s Baseless Designation of the 6.’
 
The event was organized by Al-Haq organization in Palestine and co-sponsored by many other organizations. The panel included Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Moayyad Bsharat, Lobbying and Advocacy Department Director of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and Sahar Francis, General Director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. The moderator for the panel discussion was Maha Abdallah, International Advocacy Officer at Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.
 
In October 2021, we aired a program on this show about the classification of the six world-renowned Palestinian non-governmental civil society organizations (Addameer, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International-Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees) as "terrorist organizations", by the Apartheid state of Israel. The outrageous classification generated calls from across the world for Israel to rescind its decision.

Date:

March 29, 2022    (Episode # 1,002)

Launch of The Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies (AAEF-CAS) at the University of Houston
 
On March 24, 2022, the Arab-American Educational Foundation and the University of Houston hosted a special dinner and reception to celebrate the launch of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies (AAEF-CAS) at the University of Houston. The event was attended by many supporters and elected officials, and included several distinguished speakers. Dr. Hashem El-Serag was the event's MC.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air some of the remarks delivered at that event, including the remarks of Dr. Daniel O'Connor, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston, Dr. Aziz Shaibani, President of the Arab-American Educational Foundation, Dr. Nancy Young, Chair of the Department of History at the University of Houston, and Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti, Associate Professor & Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History, and Founding Director of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston. We will also listen to the proclamation issued by the Mayor of the City of Houston, Sylvester Turner, read by City of Houston Council Member Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, declaring March 24, 2022, as "Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies Day", as well as some of the remarks delivered by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
 
The Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston is the only academic center in Texas, and one of two in the United States, solely focusing on the Arab region. The AAEF-CAS is based at the University of Houston’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and houses two major endowed positions: The Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History, and The Arab-American Educational Foundation Dr. Burhan and Mrs. Misako Ajouz Endowed Professorship in Arab Studies.

Date:

March 22, 2022    (Episode # 1,001)

1st Segment: Interview with Dr. Suad Amiry (part 2 of 2)
 
Last week on Arab Voices, we aired part 1 (archived at www.ArabVoices.net) of the interview Arab Voices guest host Hanan Awad conducted with Dr. Suad Amiry, an award-winning Palestinian architect, writer, community leader, and founding director of RIWAQ (Centre for Architectural Conservation) in Ramallah, Palestine.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air part 2 of that interview, in which Hanan continues to explore with Suad her journey as a Palestinian architect, writer, and community leader.
    
Dr. Suad Amiry was born in Damascus, Syria, and grew up between Amman, Damascus, Beirut, and Cairo. She studied architecture at the American University of Beirut and finished her graduate and Ph.D. studies at the University of Michigan and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She is the founding director of RIWAQ (Centre for Architectural Conservation) in Ramallah, Palestine, for which she received numerous architectural awards amongst them was the prestigious "Aga Khan Award for Architecture" in 2013 as well as the 2007 Qattan Distinction Award. Personally, Amiry has won many awards such as the Tamayouz Excellence Award, Woman in Architecture and Construction in 2018.
 
Dr. Amiry has written extensively on architecture and authored several books, including My Damascus and Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, which was awarded Italy's Viareggio-Versilia Prize in 2004 and was translated into 20 languages.
 
Dr. Amiry taught architecture at Columbia University, Birzeit University, and the University of Jordan. She also participated in the 1991-1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Washington, D.C.
 

2nd Segment: The victorious battle for the 1st Amendment against Virginia's anti-boycott bill by Paul Noursi
 
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, co-hosted their annual Israel Lobby Conference on March 4, 2022. The 2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference brought together people from across the country and the world to critically assess the pro-Israel lobby and the U.S. government's unflinching support for Israel. There were several incredible speeches given by activists, artists, journalists, lawyers, politicians, and others.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the talk delivered by Paul Noursi, an activist with the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR) since its founding in 2016. He is also active with several other organizations working for peace and justice in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, the New Dominion PAC, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Arab American Democratic Caucus of Virginia. He was also a Barack Obama Delegate to the Virginia State Convention in 2008, a Bernie Sanders Delegate to the Virginia State Convention in 2016 and 2020, and he has served on various Get-Out-the Vote and Democratic campaigns.
 
Noursi has lived and traveled extensively in the Middle East, including Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon. He has a BS in Civil Engineering, an MS in Engineering Management, and is a licensed and practicing civil engineer with wide-ranging experience in land development and public works in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.

Date:

March 15, 2022    (Episode # 1,000)

1st Segment: National Day of Action: Protest U.S. Support for the War in Yemen
     
On March 5, 2022, over 80 organizations from across the US, coordinated and held a national day of action to protest U.S. complicity in the war on Yemen, and called for an end to that disastrous war. Demonstrators from all around the nation also convened at the offices of congressional delegations with a united message “Introduce a Yemen War Powers Resolution Now!” They also urged everyone to call 1-833-STOP-WAR (www.1833StopWar.com) and demand an immediate end to U.S. participation in the war.
   
One of the rallies was held in Oakland, California, with many speakers participating. In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air some of the remarks delivered at that rally by Neda Saleh Aldabyani, activist and one of the event’s organizers, Sunaina Maira, Professor of Asian American Studies, and is affiliated with the Middle East/South Asia Studies program and with the Cultural Studies Graduate Group at UC Davis, Jack with ANSWER Coalition, Eleanor Levine with CODEPINK, Ali with Yemen Freedom Council, and Sharif Zakout, with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC).
    

2nd Segment: Interview with Dr. Suad Amiry (part 1 of 2)
 
Hanan Awad, a regular guest host on Arab Voices, interviewed Dr. Suad Amiry, an award-winning Palestinian architect, writer, community leader, and founding director of RIWAQ (Centre for Architectural Conservation) in Ramallah, Palestine. In this interview, Hanan explores with Suad her journey as a Palestinian architect, writer, and community leader.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air part 1 of that interview, and next week, we will air part 2.
 
Dr. Suad Amiry was born in Damascus, Syria, and grew up between Amman, Damascus, Beirut, and Cairo. She studied architecture at the American University of Beirut and finished her graduate and Ph.D. studies at the University of Michigan and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She is the founding director of RIWAQ (Centre for Architectural Conservation) in Ramallah, Palestine, for which she received numerous architectural awards amongst them was the prestigious "Aga Khan Award for Architecture" in 2013 as well as the 2007 Qattan Distinction Award. Personally, Amiry has won many awards including the Tamayouz Excellence Award, Women in Architecture and Construction in 2018, and most recently the lifetime achievement award from TAKREEM in Lebanon.
 
Dr. Amiry has written extensively on architecture and authored several books, including My Damascus and Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, which was awarded Italy's Viareggio-Versilia Prize in 2004 and was translated into 20 languages.
 
Dr. Amiry taught architecture at Columbia University, Birzeit University, and the University of Jordan. She also participated in the 1991-1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Washington, D.C.

Date:

March 8, 2022    (Episode # 999)

1st Segment: Double Standards, Hypocrisy & Racism in Media Coverage and Politicians' Stand Over Ukraine
     
During the first segment of this episode of Arab Voices, we will talk about the double standards and hypocrisy in media coverage and politicians’ stand when it comes to the Ukrainian/Russian crisis, and the never-ending crisis after crisis of invasions, occupations, and wars on countries in the Middle East including Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Palestine.
 
We will also air the remarks delivered by Richard Boyd Barrett, Member of the Irish Parliament, on the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, including the recent report of Amnesty International, and on the double standards on Ukraine and Palestine. He delivered those remarks on March 2, 2022, at the Irish Parliament.
 

2nd Segment: "The Israel lobby's attacks on freedom of speech and successful legal challenges" by Radhika Sainath
     
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, co-hosted their annual Israel Lobby Conference on March 4, 2022. The conference brought together people from across the country and the world to critically assess the pro-Israel lobby and the U.S. government's unflinching support for Israel. There were several incredible speeches given by activists, artists, journalists, lawyers, politicians, and others.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the talk delivered by Radhika Sainath on the topic "The Israel lobby's attacks on freedom of speech and successful legal challenges". In her talk, Radhika analyzed events on college campuses and elsewhere that constitute an assault on free speech and exercise a chilling effect on students, professors, and others who attempt to discuss or organize against Israeli apartheid and other forms of repression. She explained —and how often—Palestine Legal responds to the campaign against freedom of speech that is being waged throughout the United States.
 
Radhika Sainath is a senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal. Her writing has appeared in Jacobin, The Nation and Huffington Post. She's working on her first novel, set in Palestine during the Second Intifada.

Date:

March 1, 2022

Richard Wolff and Gerald Horne: After Three Decades of NATO Menacing its Border, Russia Draws a Line and Pushes Back in Ukraine... What's Next... Follow the Money... Plus Headlines
     
Today on Arab Voices, we will air a recent episode from the award-winning, weekly hour “On The Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation's Capital”, on the Ukrainian/Russian crisis, and guests take on the US behavior in this crisis, given the history of the US invading, occupying, and supporting aggressions against other countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, and Palestine.
 
Esther Iverem, producer and host of “On The Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation's Capital” speaks with two distinguished guests during the February 25, 2022 episode about the Ukrainian/Russian Crisis:
 
Professor Richard D. Wolff, economist, author, visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City, and host of the weekly show, Economic Update, and Professor Gerald Horne, the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and author of several publications. We will also hear remarks from Leela Anand, the Southern Regional Coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition.

Date:

February 22, 2022

New Evidence Showing Anti-Muslim Hate Group Used Paid ‘Spies’ to Surveil Prominent Muslim Leaders & Groups for More Than a Decade
   
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will share with you the information released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), detailing new evidence showing the anti-Muslim hate group IPT working with the Israeli government, spent more than a decade and hundreds of thousands of dollars to surveil and spy on prominent Muslim organizations and leaders, including then-Rep. Keith Ellison.
 
CAIR revealed the new spying evidence during a press conference held on January 12, 2022, at which Edward Ahmed Mitchell, Attorney and National Deputy Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Nihad Awad, Executive Director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, participated.
  
CAIR also revealed that two individuals, a former IPT staffer and a Muslim who worked as a spy for IPT, have come forward to confess, apologized for their involvement, and provided detailed information about the hate group’s activities and motivations.
   
On December 21, 2021, Arab Voices aired a segment on how the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) uncovered and disrupted a hate group’s effort to infiltrate and spy on over a dozen mosques and Muslim American organizations. That anti-Muslim hate group is the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), led by Steven Emerson, a far-right extremist who has been described as an anti-Muslim activist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. CAIR had revealed that IPT has been collaborating with Israeli intelligence to spy on US organizations. CAIR’s investigation at that time revealed that the executive and legal director of its Ohio Chapter, Romin Iqbal, had been secretly working with IPT, secretly sharing confidential information about CAIR’s civil rights work, strategic plans, and private emails.

Date:

February 15, 2022

Steve Sabella on Art, Exile and Palestinian Identity
     
In this episode, Arab Voices guest host Hanan Awad interviews Steve Sabella on Art, Exile and Palestinian Identity.
 
Steve Sabella is an award-winning Palestinian artist and writer (born in Jerusalem, Palestine), and is well-known as the author of the award-winning memoir, The Parachute Paradox (2016) tackling the colonization of the imagination. The book won the 2017 Eric Hoffer Award and the 2016 Nautilus Book Awards for best memoir. In addition, Sabella has published several academic essays that deal with the concept of exile and identity. His research focuses on the genealogy and archaeology of the image. Sabella is an international artist that uses photography and photographic installations as his primary forms of expression. He has had many exhibits throughout Palestine as well as internationally, most notably through the collections of the British Museum in London, the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, the Arab World Institute in Paris, and the Contemporary Art Platform.
 
Hanan Awad is a Palestinian American street photographer, whose photos have been exhibited around the world. Here photos capture the tragedy of the physical and cultural forced displacement of Palestinians and narrate their resilience and resistance against the colonialist occupation of Palestine.

Date:

February 8, 2022

The War in Yemen: One Year into the Biden Administration
  
Demand Progress, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, co-sponsored a panel discussion on February 4, 2022, on "The War in Yemen: One Year into the Biden Administration". 
 
The event featured Hassan El-Tayyab with Friends Committee on National Legislation (moderator), Dr. Aisha Jumaan with Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, Bruce Riedel with the Brookings Institution, Dr. Annelle Sheline with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and Dr. Marcus Stanley with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. The panelists offered updates on the war and blockade on Yemen, the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and the US's role; highlighted stories from the ground in Yemen; analyzed the Biden administration’s policies over the past year; and offered perspectives on what role Congress can play in ending U.S. involvement in the war and blockade.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the remarks delivered at that panel discussion. To view the entire event and listen to the the Question and Answer session that followed the remarks, click here.
   
Event Description:
One year after the Biden administration announced an end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition’s offensive operations in Yemen, critical forms of U.S. military support remain, including ongoing spare parts transfers and maintenance for Saudi warplanes. As the war approaches the seven-year mark, the conflict continues to escalate and Yemeni civilians suffer the consequences. This event will offer reflections on the Biden administration’s Yemen approach over the past year and discuss steps Congress can take to resolve the crisis.

Our conversation comes at a desperate moment with roughly 16.2 million Yemenis at risk of famine. The UN warned in March 2021 that 400,000 children under the age of 5 would perish from severe acute malnutrition without urgent action. Despite growing pressure from lawmakers, civil society, and Yemeni-American activists against the Saudi blockade of Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition only allowed 5% of Yemen's fuel needs into its Red Sea ports in December and conducted multiple airstrikes on Sana’a Airport, closing the runway to UN-aid flights. The lack of fuel has driven the price of food and water beyond the reach of many Yemenis, exacerbating malnutrition and starvation. Over 15,000 Yemeni civilians were displaced by the conflict in December, and over 350 civilians were killed directly by the conflict.

Date:

February 1, 2022

1st Segment: Federal Judge Blocks the State of Texas from Enforcing its anti-BDS Law against a Texas Businessman
  
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air some of the remarks delivered at a press conference held on January 31, 2022, by the Council on American Islamic Relations after a federal judge ruled on January 28, 2022, that Texas Anti-BDS Law Violates Free Speech Rights. We will air the remarks of CAIR Attorney and National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas, Chairman of CAIR Texas-Houston John Floyd, and Director of Operations at CAIR-Houston William White.
 
The Judge’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by the Council on American Islamic Relations on behalf of the owner of A&R Engineering and Testing firm, Rasmy Hassouna, who has done more than two million dollars of business with the City of Houston over the last 20 years, but was unable to renew the contract with the city of Houston because he refused to sign the state imposed oath not to boycott Israel.
 

2nd Segment: New Report by Amnesty International: “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity”
  
Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with more than 10 million members and supporters around the world, released a new report on February 1, 2022, labeling Israel an Apartheid State. The 280-page report is titled “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity”.
  
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will talk about that newly released report, and air an audio statement from Amnesty International that was released with the new report.
 
This is not the first time a prominent and internationally recognized non-governmental organization issues such a report labeling Israel an Apartheid State. In 2021, two other reported were published by Human Rights Watch titled "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution", and another report released by the Israeli Human Rights group B’tselem documented Israeli Apartheid against Palestinians in its report "A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid".
 

Date:

January 25, 2022

1st Segment: 2nd Arab Bazaar - Interview with Bashira Idelbe
  
We will speak with Bashira Idelbe, board member and events director with the Palestinian American Cultural Center in Houston, Texas, about the upcoming 2nd Arab Bazaar scheduled to be held on February 12, 2022, at the Arab American Cultural & Community Center (ACC), 10555 Stancliff Rd., Houston, Texas 77099.
    
Discover and Support Arab-owned businesses showcasing their products to Houstonians and strengthen the Arab community in Houston.
 
The 2nd Arab Bazaar is co-hosted by the Palestinian American Cultural Center and the Arab American Cultural & Community Center.
   

2nd Segment: Protests Against the Israeli Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and the Saudi-led War in Yemen
  
We will talk about the ongoing Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the ongoing home demolitions in occupied Jerusalem and other occupied Palestinian cities, and the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land.
 
We will air some of the remarks delivered at a recent Houston and New York protests to stand with the residents of occupied Palestine (two protests amongst dozens held in different cities in the US and around the world recently). The protesters also called for an end to the US-supported Saudi-led war on Yemen. We will air remarks delivered by representatives from Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Houston, Palestinian Youth Movement, Palestinian American Council, Malaya Movement Texas, Jewish Voice for Peace, Texas People's Party, Al-Awda New York: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and other individuals.

Date:

January 18, 2022

Award Winning Pacifica Documentary: I Have A Dream
  
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we will air the award winning Pacifica Radio documentary, I Have A Dream, produced 3 days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was born on January 15, 1929, and was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Dr. King was one of the greatest civil rights leaders.
 
In 2013, Pacifica Radio commemorated the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Civil Rights, by airing a unique recording from Pacifica Radio historic collection, I Have A Dream documentary. Pacifica Radio special also featured a conversation with Dr. Clayborne Carson, Stanford University Professor and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air the 2013 Pacifica Radio special, which included the award winning documentary, I Have A Dream.

Date:

January 11, 2022

"Path of Love in Islam: Rumi and His Ancestors" by Dr. Omid Safi
  
The Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston hosted an online lecture on November 23, 2021, titled “Path of Love in Islam: Rumi and His Ancestors”, by Dr. Omid Safi.
  
Omid Safi is a Professor of Sufism and contemporary Islam at Duke University. His most recent book on Persian Sufism is Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition, which was published by Yale University Press. He has two forthcoming books on Rumi and Kharaqani. Omid leads spiritually oriented tours to Turkey and Morocco through Illuminated Tours, and teaches courses online on subjects ranging from Rumi and Sufism through Illuminated Courses.
  
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air that lecture.
  
The event also featured thoughts and commentary on the lecture by Dr. Emran El-Badawi, Chair of the Modern and Classical Languages department, and program director and associate professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Houston, followed by a question and answer session, and you can watch the entire event here.

Date:

January 4, 2022

1st Segment: Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Speech at Palestine Rally
  
The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist, passed away on December 26, 2021, at the age of 90. Not only did Desmond Tutu speak against white nationalist Apartheid system in South Africa, but he also spoke loudly against the Israeli occupation and apartheid, and he supported Palestinian human rights. Tutu also called for a global boycott of "Israel" and urged the Episcopal Church not to invest in firms that support the Israeli occupation. Tutu once said "I have been to the Occupied Palestinian territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid". He also spoke against the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. In 1984, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
 
In this episode of Arab Voices, we will air one of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s speeches delivered at a rally for Palestine held in South Africa in 2014.
  

2nd Segment: Holding South Africa, But Not Israel, Accountable
  
We will also air a talk by John Dugard, titled “Holding South Africa, But Not Israel, Accountable”. John Dugard is a South African Professor of international law and an outspoken critic of apartheid. He became a member of the U.N.’s International Law Commission in 1997. From 2000 to 2018 he served as Judge ad hoc in the International Court of Justice, and from 2001 to 2008 he was the U.N. Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories. He has written several books on apartheid, human rights and international law. His memoir, Confronting Apartheid: A Personal History of South Africa, Namibia and Palestine, was published in 2018.
 
Professor John Dugard delivered his talk on “Holding South Africa, But Not Israel, Accountable” in April 2021, at the annual conference held to discuss Israel, its US Lobby and apartheid, sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy.